


Warmer, Kinder

by hops



Series: the only life you could save [3]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Drug Use, Multi, Polyamory, TAZ Poly Week, being best friends with your boyfriend's boyfriend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 07:47:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13876392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hops/pseuds/hops
Summary: Lucretia and Taako can't sleep, so they steal Merle's weed and talk about their mutual boyfriend.





	Warmer, Kinder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [epersonae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/gifts).



> CW for marijuana use 
> 
> Prompt 1 for TAZ poly week! Sunrise/sunset. Lucretia and Taako are not together obv but I thought it was appropriate for poly week bc they are a part of the big tangle of Luv that is polyblaster. 
> 
> And, natch, this is for @epersonae, the one who got me into this big polyblaster mess in the first place. The dedication is only appropriate.

Lucretia raises herself from Magnus’s side and finds the bed one-third empty. Magnus, snoring softly beside her, is blissfully unaware of any absence, or any of her movement, for that matter. But Lucretia is awake now. And when Lucretia’s awake, there’s usually no coaxing her back to sleep until the following night. Thoughts, nerves, worries… she’s not sure how it doesn’t all get to Magnus the way it gets to her. 

Or, perhaps, the way it gets to Taako, too. 

She rolls out of bed easily and pads across the floor with the light-footed movements of a thief. Pausing by Magnus’s desk, she searches the dark floor for his jacket, but finds nothing there. She smirks in spite of herself. Taako must have had the same idea. 

When the door opens, it’s swift and quiet. She places it back gently as the latch clicks and leaves Magnus to his dreams. She hopes that they’re good ones. Of the three of them, he’d always been the one to have the least nightmares, but as the years go on… 

She sighs aloud, runs a hand over the silk scarf she’s got her hair wrapped in for the night, heads down the hall and up the stairs to the kitchen. And there’s Taako, right where she knew he’d be, a mug of something steaming tucked into his hands. 

“Ha, I shoulda made two cups. Figured you’d be joining me eventually.” 

“You stole the jacket,” she comments with a small smile. 

“It’s not stealing if you get there first. Be a better insomniac next time, hm?” 

She takes a seat across from him at the long table. “Noted.” 

They sit in a comfortable silence for a few long moments, their shared sleeplessness covering them like a quilt, everything a bit more soft and muffled than it would have been had they spent this time entirely alone. Taako sips his tea, then his ears twitch slightly upwards. 

“Maybe I should have  _ some  _ manners,” he sighs, then flicks a lazy wrist to send a mage hand floating to the cabinet for a second mug. If he has any intent about which mug he picks, it doesn’t show on his face. But over floats a mug Lucretia made herself in a rich world filled with art and music. A year in which she’d devoted herself to a pottery wheel instead of only her journals. The mage hand places the mug down gently before her and she smiles. 

With a quiet spell muttered, the mug fills with hot tea tinted perfect pink. He motions to it with one hand. She sips. 

“How’d I do?” 

She takes a moment to smack her lips and let out a contented sigh. It’s very good. Near perfect, actually. But she won’t admit that, not to Taako. She has to keep some secrets, after all. 

“It’s better when you brew it the long way…” She can’t help but laugh at the exasperated roll of his eyes. “But it’s still very good. Thank you.” 

They fall back into their silence, both of them sipping, nothing but the quiet hum of the ship filling the air between them. Through the windows, the world below is dark and dreary-deep. 

She thinks about Magnus, still sound asleep in his bed, she’s sure. She wonders how he does it all; fighting for the right thing year after year, being the light that he is to everyone else. Loving her, loving Taako, loving each world despite the endless challenges before them. She wonders what they’ve done to deserve that love. 

Taako looks exhausted. She wonders if he’s wondering the same. 

“When’s the last time you slept, Taako?” Lucretia asks gently. She half-braces herself for a sharp quip back at her, but he just slumps a little bit. Sips his tea lethargically. 

“Elves don’t need sleep,” he says instead, looking off at the stove behind her. His usual answer. 

“Sure.” 

He smirks, trying to hide the tiny bit of amusement her flat answers usually coax from him. “Yup. Sorry you’re a human cursed to the mortal coil of sleep, bubbeleh. I’m Gucci.” 

“Right.” 

“Don’t believe me?” 

“Nope.” 

He laughs. “Well, you don’t have to. However, I  _ do  _ feel sorry for  _ you.  _ So maybe we should do something about that?” 

She rolls her eyes, holds her mug up to her lips, and inhales the warn, floral scent of the tea. She’s calm, but she’s wide awake. “You’re not casting  _ Sleep  _ on me.” 

Taako snorts. “Not exactly what I had in mind.” 

“Then what…?” She trails off as a grin cracks across his face. 

“A little birdie told ol’ Taako a rumor about this world. Particularly, the flora and fauna. Well, just the flora… This old, round bird, with a shitty beard—” 

Lucretia’s grin mirrors Taako’s, knowing exactly where this is going. “So… this bird decided to share this  _ flora  _ with you?” 

“Nope, but he’s about to. It’s been a while since we’ve stolen from the ol’  _ ganj _ stash, eh?” 

“Well—” 

But Taako doesn’t let her finish. He hops up from the table and practically floats down the stairs. Taako, she thinks, is a walking contradiction most of the time. Somehow aiming to cause a scene and stay out of sight at the same time, all the time. She follows down the stairs with about half as much grace. When she reaches the hallway, he’s already cast  _ Silence _ , and Merle’s door is open. 

“Taako—” she tries to hiss, but the spell swallows her voice into nothingness, even to her own ears. She follows into the doorway as Taako creeps masterfully into Merle’s bunk. Her ears feels uncomfortably stuffed at the absence of sound; she can  _ see  _ Merle’s loud snores, but she can’t hear them. After only a few moments of rummaging around, Taako emerges, victorious, with a wooden box shaped like a turtle. He pumps it twice in the air in celebration, then exits the room, replaces the door, and takes down his spell. 

Lucretia pauses. “Is… is this how you’ve been stealing my drawings?” 

“What drawings?” Taako asks, feigning ignorance. She hears the smile on his face as he climbs the stairs.

“Don’t—” she starts, too loud, and he turns around on the steps to shush her. She shakes her head. She tries again as a whisper. “Don’t go into my room like that.” 

“Sleep in your own bed and I won’t.” 

She pushes him as he reaches the top step and he pretends to stumble forward. They both laugh as he crosses the kitchen, hits the lights, then makes his way up and out onto the deck.

The night is cool and pitch-black, save for the reddish light of a few faraway moons. The trees below are eerily still, and everything feels like it’s coated thinly with dew, but Lucretia doesn’t mind much. There’s something about the night that’s safe, something about the way it cloaks her and Taako both in its darkness as they sit below the railing of the deck, their feet hanging over the edge of the ship like they have countless nights before. Taako’s bare heels thump against the metal hull as he tosses the weed into Merle’s grinder and twists it lazily. 

“This better be good kush, ‘cause last time it was—” 

“Shitty.” Lucretia nods curtly, not even commenting on his lame choice in slang, though it’s nothing new for Taako. “I trust Merle’s taste.” 

“You know, I really could not name a  _ worse  _ place to put your trust, ‘Creesh. You gonna start wearing those tacky island button-downs next?” 

“I think they’re nice,” she deadpans. Taako can’t stop the hoot of laughter that escapes him and echoes down over the forest below.

“I’ll be sure to get you one for Candlenights. Matching ones, even.” He nods as he packs the bowl. “Good thing, too, ‘cause I’m running out of gift ideas. Two birds with one stone.”

“Well, that’s funny. I was going to get you the same. Maybe we should all just do a swap?” 

Taako rolls his eyes, laughs, then lights up. He speaks as he holds the smoke in his lungs. “Don’t even. You know Merle will.” 

He exhales and hands her the bowl. “I think Magnus would like it. A nice family photo op.” 

“Eugh. That is maybe the worst idea you’ve ever had.” 

He grins, shaking in a silent laugh. “Probably.” 

And then, Taako giggles first, and she suddenly remembers how contagious his laughter really is. She giggles too, elbows his ribs, and laughing, laughing, she leans over the railing and presses her cheek to the cool metal. It feels so good to  _ laugh.  _

She takes a calming breath, then lights and inhales, feeling the pungent smoke burning the back of her throat as it goes down. She exhales not long after, unable to hold her breath like Taako does, even after all these years of similar indulgence in his preferred drug-related shenanigans. Even so, as she takes a second hit, the fuzzy, calm feeling of her high descends on her and wraps her in warmth against the night air. 

They pass the bowl back and forth, not talking. Not needing to. Somewhere below, birds sing back and forth in the trees. Everything seems a little more beautiful, Lucretia thinks. She settles in against Taako’s arm as she starts to feel a little more relaxed. Taako packs another bowl. His tiny movements jostle her, but she doesn’t mind. 

“Greens?” he offers, holding the bowl out to her, but she shakes her head against his shoulder. She huddles a little closer as a breeze licks her bare arms. “More for me.” 

Taako smokes as she shuts her eyes and listens to the coming and going of his breathing, of his heart thrumming beneath his skin. She shivers again, but she doesn’t feel so cold. It’s been a long time since things have felt so peaceful. 

“You cold, Lucy-lu?” 

“No,” Lucretia mumbles, but Taako pushes her up and takes Magnus’s jacket off anyway. Taako drapes the red fabric carefully over her shoulders. It’s still warm from being wrapped around him for so long. “Thanks.” 

Taako doesn’t say anything, only continues smoking and gazing out over the tops of the trees to the just-visible lake far beyond. She closes her eyes again and swings her legs in the night air. The wind feels cool and smooth as it weaves softly around her ankles. 

When Taako’s done smoking, he puts everything back into Merle’s little box and sets it aside. A little twinge of melancholy pokes at her gut as she curls into herself and smells Magnus on the jacket. He’s probably still asleep, and he needs his sleep, she knows, but she suddenly misses his usual steady presence at her other side. 

Her mind wanders back and forth between Taako beside her and Magnus down in his bunk. How, somehow, impossibly, they’d found Magnus, and Magnus had found them, and they’d all found themselves on this impossible journey on this impossible ship… She wonders, as she wonders so often, what she’s ever done to deserve this exception. To deserve this  _ love.  _

It kind of blows her mind. 

Tears prick at her eyes for no reason other than the overflow of emotion she feels. Something between humbled and overjoyed. Unworthy but grateful. She sniffs, but if he notices, he doesn’t say anything. 

“He’s good.” Lucretia says softly. Taako nods, already knowing what she’s saying. “What’d we do to deserve that?” 

Taako sighs out a laugh. “The big lug.”  

Lucretia opens her eyes and looks up at the cluster of reddish moons, moving high in the sky. 

“Dunno what we did. But I’m glad we did it,” Taako says softly. 

She nods. 

Her legs feel cold and damp as they sit there, pleasantly buzzed, not saying anything else. Her mind mellows out as the night starts to get just a little lighter, the deep navy sky giving way to an indigo. A starlit prelude to dawn. 

She wants to be sleepy, but she’s really not. Neither is Taako, so it seems. But it’s okay. Everything feels a little bit more okay when Taako’s there, and Magnus is there, and they have the Light, and the ship, and their family.  

She settles, places a hand on Taako’s forearm. Yeah. Everything is okay. 

After a while, heavy footfalls on the deck break her thoughts. “ _ Hey!”  _ Magnus calls softly from the open door. Taako and Lucretia both sit up and turn around to face him, looking only a little red-eyed and disoriented. “What are you doing? Why do you guys  _ never _ sleep?” 

Without missing a beat, Taako swings up and onto his feet, snatching up Merle’s stash as he goes. She feels a little too slow to get up yet. 

“Elves don’t need sleep, Maggie,” Taako reminds him in that same singsong way he always does. She hears Taako’s wild giggle as Magnus surely tickles him, the same way  _ he  _ always does. Her heart feels tight in her chest, in the good way. The best way. “You wanna smoke with us, big guy?” 

“Merle’s?” 

“Yup. That chronic.  _ Broccoli.”  _

“Alright, enough,” Lucretia laughs as she turns from her seat to face them, one hand hanging onto the railing. “That’s— oh my gods.” 

Magnus plops down beside her, his big thigh pressing up against her slimmer one as Taako tucks himself into Magnus’s other side. She wraps both her arms around his larger one and cuddles him close. She shuts her eyes and doesn’t open them again until Magnus is passing her the bowl. 

Feeling everything growing just a little warmer, just a little kinder, she looks up and finds Magnus bumping his forehead to Taako’s. She smiles softly and waits for Magnus to turn to her, too. And he does. And he kisses her. 

They watch the sunrise together. 

Yeah. Everything is going to be okay. 

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, and kudos if you caught the stealthy seeso MBMBaM ref in here lol 
> 
> Drop me a line on tumblr @magcretia for more polyblaster CONTENT


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